Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), played by Lisa Kudrow. She is perhaps best known for her guitar playing in Central Perk and her elaborate improbable stories about her previous lives. Phoebe was known throughout the series as the eccentric, sometimes unintelligent but street smart, friend. Background Early life Phoebe and her twin sister, Ursula, are the result of a sexual relationship between Phoebe Abbott, Frank Buffay and Lily Buffay. Phoebe Abbott wasn't ready to be a mother, so Lily and Frank adopted both twins and raised them together. Frank abandoned Lily and the twins, and then later married another woman. Her step-father went to prison, and Lilycommitted suicide by carbonmonoxide poisoning. Phoebe was living on her own on the streets of New York City by the age of 14. At one time, she lived in a burnt-out Buick LeSabre. She never attended high school or college, but she ostensibly met behind a dumpster with a small group of three to learn French. She became fluent in French, as evidenced in "The One Where Joey Speaks French." She also speaks some Italian, and has a short conversation in Italian with Joey's grandmother, Nonnie (The One Where Ross Can't Flirt). Her language skills are treated somewhat inconsistently. She misunderstands when one of Monica's assistants introduces himself as a sous-chef, and she does not appear to understand Rachel's Italian boyfriend, Paolo. Neither can any the other five friends. Phoebe occasionally resorted to mugging to survive. At one point, when they were 14, she mugged Ross. (This was when these future friends were still strangers). One of the stolen items was the only existing copy of Ross's comic book, Science Boy (The One With the Mugging). Phoebe mentions that she lived in Prague. She also states that she lived with an albino man who washed windows outside Port Authority, as well as a, "guy named Sidney who talked to his hand." ''She claims that she got hepatitis, when a pimp spat in her mouth. On her sweet sixteen, she was chased around a tire yard by an escaped mental patient who, ''"in his own words, wanted to 'kill me or whatever' ." ''(The One With the Home Study). Her previous lifestyle and wild stories have shocked her friends. When she tells the story of the time she stabbed a cop, their obviously surprised looks cause her to retort, "'Well, he stabbed me first!" Phoebe has picked up an impressive talent for boxing at a YMCA, where, according to her, the guys, "weren't being Christian enough" (The One With the Race Car Bed). Phoebe met and moved in with Monica, which began their friendship. While still living with her, Phoebe married a gay Canadian ice dancer, Duncan, in order to help him obtain a green card. At the time, Phoebe was secretly in love with him. Monica claims that when Duncan left, she saw Phoebe eating a cheeseburger. Years later, Duncan returns unexpectedly to request a divorce from Phoebe because he has realized that he isn't really gay, and that he is in love with a woman (The One With Phoebe's Husband). In 1993, Phoebe, not being able to take Monica's obsessive neatness, started to secretly move out. She moved her furniture piece by piece into her grandmother's apartment (The One With the Flashback). Season 1 Phoebe is introduced as the quirky one of the group. She has little family history revealed, except for the fact that her mother killed herself and that she has a twin sister. She is a masseuse, and she plays guitar in the coffee house Central Perk .She is very bad at playing but her friends never say so. Season 2 It is revealed that she is married to Duncan, a gay Canadian ice dancer. They divorce because he wants to get married to another woman, revealing that he was never gay. She also starts searching for her family and finds out that she has a younger half-brother, Frank Buffay, Jr. Season 3 Phoebe spends time with her half-brother, Frank, Jr., for the first time. She also finds out about a friend of her adoptive mother's, Phoebe Abbott, who lives on the beach. The group (including Ross' new girlfriend, Bonnie) takes a trip to the beach, where Phoebe finds out that Phoebe Abbott is actually her birth mother. Rachel convinces Bonnie to shave her head again which then leads to Ross and Rachel getting back together. Season 4 Frank, Jr., and his wife, Alice, tell Phoebe that they are trying for a baby without success (The One With Phoebe's Uterus). Frank, Jr., asks Phoebe if she will consider being the surrogate for Frank and Alice's baby, to which Phoebe eventually agrees. Phoebe has the embryos implanted and waits to see if she gets pregnant. She takes a pregnancy test, which is positive (The One With the Embryos). Phoebe goes for an ultrasound scan, which reveals that she is pregnant with triplets. This is amazing because, as Phoebe puts it, "The doctor said there was little chance of one attaching. But three ..." ''By being pregnant Phoebe is not allowed to fly on an airplane to London for Ross' wedding, so she and Rachel stay in New York. But then Phoebe is left alone when Rachel flies to London to tell Ross that she still loves him. Season 5 Phoebe feels left out when her friends talk about London, so they arrange for her and the rest of them to go to Atlantic City. But her water breaks as soon as they were about to leave, and she is rushed to the hospital. She gives birth to her brothers triplets: Chandler, Leslie, and Frank Jr., Jr. She also dates a policeman named Gary, after finding his badge and pretending to be a police officer. They move in together, but the next morning she breaks up with him when he shoots a bird. Season 6 Phoebe babysits the one-year-old triplets. She convinces Chandler and Monica to help her. But Monica takes Chandler to the hospital when a tiny plastic gun is stuck in his throat, leaving her alone with the babies.in this episode she had a fan to Season 7 When Monica and Chandler get engaged, an excited Phoebe believes that she should be able to sing at the wedding. Monica reluctantly agrees to allow Phoebe to sing. Joey breaks the news that Phoebe isn't really singing at the wedding, and an angry Phoebe sings: ''"Whenever I get married, guess who won't get to sing? Somebody named Geller, and somebody else named Bing!" Phoebe discovers a positive pregnancy test in the trash. Believing that Monica is pregnant, she tells everyone about Monica's "pregnancy." Eventually, Rachel admits that she's the one who is pregnant, and she begs Phoebe to keep it a secret. To protect Rachel, Phoebe claims that she is pregnant. Wanting to be there for his friend, Joey proposes. Phoebe agrees to marry him, but becomes angry when Joey proposes to Rachel when he finds out that she's pregnant. Phoebe is anxious to find out who the father of Rachel's baby is, and she eventually finds out that it's Ross. (At first she thinks it's Tag's, and she even calls him up to tell him that Rachel has to talk to him) Season 8 Phoebe meets her twin's fiancee, Eric, and learns that Ursula has lied to him about many things. Eric breaks up with Ursula and decides to date Phoebe. On their first date, Eric admits that he can't look at Phoebe without seeing Ursula, and seeing Ursula angers him. They end up kissing, until Phoebe has to leave for a massage appointment. She comes back and finds out that Ursula came in after she left. Eric, thinking it was Phoebe, had sex with her. Realizing their relationship is too weird, Phoebe breaks it off with Eric. Phoebe reads her tea leaves and predicts that she's about to meet the man of her dreams. She assumes that the man of her dreams is Jim, a man she has been seeing everywhere while out on her errands. When she talks to him, he asks her out despite being bemused when she misunderstands the pretty obvious meaning of a remark he makes, but when they go on the date, he turns out to be a nasty, unpleasant person who makes highly inappropriate vulgar comments to intimidate her for his own amusement, and he also claims, most likely lying in yet another attempt to intimidate her, to be a writer of "erotic novels for children" which are "wildly unpopular." At her new drycleaner's, Phoebe meets a different man named Parker, who unlike bullying Jim seems to be a nice guy, which causes Phoebe to decide to date him instead. But while Parker does appear to be a genuinely nice guy, he is also unbelievably over-enthusiastic, and also impulsive and oblivious to the fact that he's irritating people, most likely unknowingly suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. They attend Jack and Judy Geller's anniversary dinner, and after they both witness Monica's ridiculous, disastrous attempt at a speech which bemuses them and everyone else in the room, Phoebe takes Parker back to her apartment and breaks up with him when she tires of his constant enthusiasm. When Rachel's due date comes and goes without her giving birth, Phoebe and Monica bet on when the baby will come. Phoebe bets that it will come later, and she keeps winning. While Rachel is in labor, Phoebe meets a cute man with a broken leg. She convinces Joey to find out his name and hospital room number, as well as personal information from the man himself. When he eventually finds out, he is very angry with Pheobe. Season 9 Joey sets Phoebe up with a random guy from the coffee house, who turns out to be Mike Hannigan. They have a good time together, but they break up when Mike doesn't want to get married again. They come back together because he can't live without Phoebe. Season 10 Mike and Phoebe get married in an outdoor winter wedding. After seeing Monica and Chandler's twins for the first time, they decide to have a baby. Relationships Rachel Green )]] Phoebe's relationship with Rachel is a bit more even-keeled than with Monica, and they are even roommates for a time. This leads to some minor clashes, including Phoebe's hatred of Pottery Barn and Rachel's embarrassment at Phoebe's strange jogging style during their morning runs. Phoebe admits that, if she had to choose which of her two girlfriends to have a lesbian relationship with, she would pick Rachel because she is not as high-maintenance as Monica. While Rachel tells Phoebe that she would pick her above Monica to have a relationship, she and Monica both mime behind Phoebe's back that they would definitely pick each other. One time during the early seasons, Phoebe insults Rachel's waitressing abilities by saying, "Yeah. Otherwise, someone might actually get what they ordered," ''sparking a huge row between all the friends. The pair get closer as the show goes on with them moving in with each other in the sixth season. Rachel is forced to move out when a fire destroys their home. When the apartment is repaired, Phoebe thinks Rachel would rather live with Joey than her. So she buys Joey presents (drums and a taranchula) to try and lure Rachel out of the apartment. But instead Rachel enjoys the presents. But still agrees to move back in with Phoebe, turns out that they turned the two-room appartment back into a one bedroom appartment, so Phoebe decideds to stay there and Rachel stay living with Joey. When Ross' wife, Emily, tells him to avoid seeing Rachel, Rachel comments that it was only going to be a matter of time before someone ended up being pushed out of the group. She adds, ''"I always thought Phoebe would be the one to go," ''because she lives far away and is not related. Rachel apologizes to Phoebe, and tells her that they should leave and make their own group because they're, ''"the best ones." Phoebe agrees and says, "All right. But let's try to get Joey." Phoebe doesn't believe Rachel when she says that she kissed a girl. Rachel invites Phoebe to dinner with the woman, and Phoebe still refuses to believe Rachel's claim. It eventually turns out to be true. When Rachel's sorority sister leaves, Phoebe kisses Rachel because she wants, "to know what all the fuss is about." Shocked, Rachel asks, "And?" Phoebe shrugs and says, "I've had better," ''before walking away. A good example of when Phoebe proves herself to be a true friend to Rachel is the Paolo situation. Even though Phoebe has a crush on Paolo, she does not take advantage of the situation when he makes a move on her. Putting her loyalty to Rachel first, she tells her what Paolo has done. This causes Rachel to furiously humiliate and break up with Paolo. Phoebe also cries when she overhears an emotional Rachel breaking up with Ross, and she is later careful not to disturb the sleeping Rachel as she leaves the apartment. Rachel also tried to comfort Phoebe when they heard a man living upstairs to Rachel and Monica, who had lifted up his carpets and gotten into a relationship with Phoebe, having sex with another woman while Phoebe was in the downstairs room with them. Monica Geller-Bing Although Phoebe and Monica are close, Phoebe often finds her competitive, obsessive-compulsive behavior off-putting. During one of Monica's obsessive outbreaks, Phoebe jokes about having, ''"woke the beast." At one point, she attempted to cut Monica out of her life. When explaining why she has to move out, Phoebe says, "I need to live in a world where people can spill!"''She moves out of Monica's apartment surreptitiously, taking out one possession at a time to avoid discovery. Once she is discovered, she states that she still wishes to be Monica's friend. They also clash when Monica becomes Phoebe's wedding planner, and acts bossy and demanding. They also fight when Phoebe sings outside Monica's restaurant, much to Monica's annoyance and embarrassment. Phoebe takes this harshly and insults Monica's cooking and restaurant, while Monica retaliates by insulting Phoebe's music. During Monica and Chandler's engagement, Monica tells Rachel and Phoebe that she cannot decide who to pick to be her maid of honor. And so, she leaves the decision to them. Initially, it is mutually decided by the two that Phoebe can be Monica's maid of honor as Phoebe says that she has never been maid of honor for anyone before. When Rachel discovers that Phoebe has already been a maid of honor, Joey tells the ladies that he and Ross will hold a competition in which Rachel and Phoebe act out potential maid of honor scenarios. Phoebe ultimately wins, but later tells Rachel that she can be Monica's maid of honor since it means more to her. Monica also tries to comfort Phoebe when she hears a man living upstairs to them who she had been in a relationship with having sex with another woman (the man had lifted up his carpets, enabling everyone in the downstairs room to hear everything he was doing). While Joey, Chandler and Ross went upstairs to deal with him, Monica, referring to when she'd earlier heard Phoebe having sex with him, told her that it "sounded like he was having more fun with you." Joey Tribbiani )]] Phoebe and Joey have a similar relationship and appear to be on the same wavelength quite often. Joey and Phoebe are best friends, and they have dinner together once a month to talk about the rest of the group. Both characters show a fondness and softness for each other, even when joking or being upset. In "The One With the Ride Along," she casually explains that, ''"when the revolution comes, I will have to destroy you all. Except you, Joey." ''Joey is angered when Monica and Chandler do not show support for his, "identical hand twin," idea. He says that none of them are allowed to live in his hand-shaped mansion, ''"except for you, Pheebs. You can live in the thumb." ''Later, she helps Joey by pretending to be Regina Phalange, a business-woman who will pay a lot for identical hand twins. However, she does admit that she does not want her {surrogate} kids to, ''"grow up in a world where Joey is right." Joey is in awe of Phoebe's knowledge of such things as reincarnation, and he openly wishes that he could remember his past lives. Phoebe replies that Joey has never had any past lives, because he is, "brand new." Phoebe tries to teach Joey how to speak French, because he claims fluency on his résumé. Much to Phoebe's annoyance, Joey has no aptitude for foreign language and just reels off gibberish. (Both Kudrow - married to a French executive - and LeBlanc - who incidentally has a French surname - speak fluent French. So does Matthew Perry, who is Canadian.) She also tries to teach him the guitar, but forbids him to touch one. They have a brief falling out when he seeks out a qualified teacher. In one episode where Phoebe was in a relationship with a man living upstairs to Rachel and Monica who had removed his carpets, enabling everyone downstairs to hear everything going on in his room, Joey was furious when, while in the downstairs room with Phoebe, they heard him having sex with another woman upstairs. Joey vowed to go upstairs and give him the "butt kicking of a lifetime" and Ross and Chandler went with him, which Phoebe thanked them for. Although bizarrely, he was somehow able to calm them down with a single sentence when they started to confront and berate him. Phoebe seems to have had a crush on Joey. She is jealous of his relationship with her twin sister, Ursula, when they date for a time. As Phoebe and Joey's relationship never goes past a kiss, Joey cannot be considered as one of Phoebe's significant others. In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty," Phoebe laments all the things she has failed to do before turning 31, including having, "the perfect kiss," ''and meeting Portuguese people. Joey gives her a kiss and says, ''"Oh. I'm one-sixteenth Portuguese." ''Phoebe frequently hits on Joey for no apparent reason. Also, they have agreed to be each other's backup if they aren't married by 40. When Phoebe married Mike Hannigan, Joey performed the ceremony. Kudrow later revealed in an interview that she and LeBlanc had pitched an idea to the writers involving Joey and Phoebe having casual sex all along, but the pitch was rejected. Chandler Bing Chandler acts as something of a little brother to Phoebe, demanding on several occasions, ''"Pheebs! Play with me!"''After Phoebe learns that Chandler is seeing Monica, she makes hilarious sexual advances towards him to test the strength of his devotion. On a few occasions, Phoebe hints that she is interested in Chandler. In "The One Where Ross Meets Elizabeth's Dad," she tells Chandler that she'll be waiting for him to make a move on her as she smiles. Chandler asks Phoebe to help him select an engagement ring for Monica after she walks in on him looking at ring brochures. Eventually, he is called upon to walk Phoebe down the aisle when she marries Mike. And in one episode, Phoebe decides that the third triplet will be named after Chandler. He and Ross also offered to help Joey deal with a man who had cheated on Phoebe in one episode, after they all heard the man, who was living upstairs to Rachel and Monica and had removed his carpets, having sex with another woman while Phoebe was in the room with them. Phoebe thanked them all for this as they left, although he was bizarrely somehow able to calm them all down with a single sentence when they started to confront and chasten him. Although the characters have been established as being close friends, the nature of their story lines often mean limited interaction. Ross Geller Though Phoebe and Ross are friends, their relationship sometimes leads to conflict between Phoebe's New Age beliefs and Ross's scientific ones. They have had debates over the theories of evolution and gravity, and they have argued over whether Phoebe's dead mother has been reincarnated as a cat. Phoebe even suggests that, at some point in the future, she and Ross will have a disagreement that ends with her killing him. Phoebe claims to be mad at Ross, but that she can't remember why. She remembers that he called her boring, but this turns out to be merely a dream that includes them playing chess on an iced-over lake and him turning into Cameron Diaz (The One With Joey's Big Break). When Phoebe is getting ready to celebrate her birthday, Ross and Rachel say that only one of them can attend a dinner with her. She says enthusiastically, ''"Rachel! Rachel!" ''Ross sarcastically replies, ''"Gee. Thanks. I'll make sure to put a lot of thought into your gift." Despite their difference in beliefs, both usually turn to one another for advice or help. When Ross finds out that Phoebe has never ridden a bike and that she has never owned one, he gives her a bike that looks exactly like the one Phoebe's neighbor had. He even goes so far as to teach her how to ride a bike. And when Ross realizes that he's still in love with Rachel, Phoebe encourages him to tell Rachel how he feels. Ross and Phoebe turn to one another when they need advice. He turns to her for advice about telling Monica about Rachel moving in, and she turns to him for advice about Mike. It has been revealed that after Ross and Carol's relationship ended, in a moment of weakness, Phoebe and Ross almost had sex on the pool table inside the bar that would become Central Perk '''(The One With the Flashback). Phoebe also cries when she overhears the emotional argument between Rachel and Ross which results in them breaking up (The Morning After). Ross also decided to help Joey deal with a man living upstairs to Monica and Rachel who was in a relationship with Phoebe and had lifted up his carpets, after they heard him having sex with another woman upstairs while Phoebe was in the downstairs room with them. When Joey nervously asks Rachel, after vowing to give him the "butt kicking of a lifetime" if the man in question was "a big guy," Ross suggested to Chandler that they all go upstairs and deal with him, and Chandler agreed, which Phoebe thanked all three of them for as they left. However, he was bizarrely somehow able to calm them all down with a single sentence when they started to confront and rebuke him. It is revealed that a mugger who attacked a teenage Ross outside St. Mark's Comics, stealing his backpack and the only existing copy of his comic Science Boy, was a teenage, homeless Phoebe. To show how sorry she is for mugging Ross, Phoebe returns Science Boy. She has been storing the comic in a box labeled Crap From the Street. She claims that she has been keeping it because she feels it is too good to sell for food, money, or smoke, as she apparently learned a lot from Science Boy when she was growing up on the street. Phoebe thinks that the situation is "kinda neat," because it gives her and Ross a link in their childhood that she doesn't share with the others. In the last episode, Phoebe drives Ross to the airport in her taxi. She delays Rachel's flight so that Ross can declare his love to Rachel. Mike Hannigan Joey, somewhat inadvertently, introduces Phoebe to Mike Hannigan. Phoebe and Mike begin a long relationship which temporarily ends when Phoebe learns Mike, having already been through one disastrous marriage, never wants to remarry. Mike learns that Phoebe's old boyfriend, David, is planning on proposing to her. When he realizes that he needs Phoebe in his life, Mike proposes to Phoebe before David can. This proposal is rejected, as Phoebe only wants to know that marriage is a possibility. However, she and Mike become a couple again. Phoebe and Mike become officially engaged (The One Where Rachel's Sister Baby-Sits), and they are married outside Central Perk. Monica is the maid of honor; Rachel is a bridesmaid; Joey officiates; Chandler gives Phoebe away; and Ross holds Mike's beloved, but smelly childhood dog (The One With Phoebe's Wedding). After she gets married, Phoebe learns that she can change her name to anything. She briefly becomes Princess Consuela Bananahammock, asking her friends to call her Valerie. Mike retaliates by changing his name to Crap Bag. Phoebe reconsiders after learning that "banana hammock" is slang for a Speedo, and changes her name to Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan. Duncan Phoebe's first marriage was to Duncan, an apparently gay ice dancer. Phoebe and Duncan got married so he could stay in the country, and Phoebe ended up falling in love with him. When Duncan left, Phoebe was caught eating a hamburger. Duncan returns six years after leaving Phoebe, announcing that he is straight and that he wants to divorce Phoebe so he can marry the woman he truly loves (The One With Phoebe's Husband). Other Marriage Phoebe was previously married in Las Vegas at some point in the past (The One That Goes Behind the Scenes '''featurette). At one point, she indicates her belief that people married in Vegas are only married within Vegas city limits. She is surprised when Monica informs her such a union is legal all over the world. After a moment of mild distress, she shrugs off the revelation. Parents Phoebe reveals her bizarre family history piece by piece throughout the series. Before it is discovered that her biological mother is alive, Phoebe is the only one among the friends to have at least one deceased parent. Her biological mother is Phoebe Abbott, a real estate agent. Abbott, after birthing Phoebe and her identical twin Ursula at age 18, gave them up to her best friend Lily. Lily's husband, a pharmacist named Frank Buffay, Sr., is the twins' biological father, and he left when they were very young. Lily, the woman Phoebe believed to be her birth mother, worked on a barge during Phoebe and Ursula's childhood, while living in upstate New York. Lily committed suicide on Christmas Day when the twins were 14. Their stepfather was imprisoned shortly thereafter, driving the twins to the streets of New York City. Phoebe meets her father when he attends her Grandma Frances' memorial service. '''Grandma Frances Phoebe and her twin sister were thus left alone. Phoebe left their hometown in upstate New York shortly thereafter and moved to New York City to earn a living. She didn't succeed, and she spent several years homeless on the street before moving in with Monica. She stayed there until 1993, when she moved in with her grandma Frances, Lily's mother. To hide Frank Buffay's real identity, Frances told her he was a tree surgeon in Burma where there are no phones. She showed Phoebe pictures of another man, claiming that he was her father. He was actually a model whose picture was a sample used in picture frames Phoebe's grandmother bought. Also in Phoebe's grandmother's apartment there is a framed picture of Albert Einstein, who Phoebe believes is her grandfather. Ursula Buffay Phoebe and her twin sister, Ursula, are estranged. Precisely when or why this happened is never fully explained. As adults they remain distant, only speaking when necessary. Ursula is shown to be callous toward Phoebe. She is revealed to be the waitress from Mad About You. Frank Buffay, Jr. Frank, Jr., is Phoebe and Ursula's younger half-brother. He is named after their father, Frank Buffay, Sr. Phoebe discovers Frank, Jr., during one of her attempts to find her father. After marrying his home economics teacher, Alice Knight, Frank Jr., asks Phoebe if she will act as a surrogate mother for them. Phoebe agrees and duly produced triplets: Frank, Jr., Jr.; Leslie and Chandler. It is suggested that Phoebe had already met her half-brother before knowing who he was. In one episode, he makes a short appearance, asking Phoebe to give him back his condom which he has dropped at her as she was playing her songs outside Central Perk (The One With The Baby On The Bus). None of Phoebe's family members attend her wedding to Mike. Personality Having experienced nothing like a normal, complete childhood, Phoebe is often quite naive and innocent, and is in some regards still a child at heart. She still believes Santa Claus exists, until Joey says otherwise. Phoebe also shocks some people in the storyline with her frankness on occasions that catches them off guard from her usual self. This straightforwardness is a running gag throughout the Friends series. Phoebe is the most promiscuous of the three girls, being the one most often referred to as having casual sex. Phoebe has mentioned skills of CPR. During the episode "The One With Rachel's Phone Number", Rachel attempts to convince Mike to do her a favor by promising that Phoebe will do anything he wants: "Seriously, I'm talking dirty stuff." Mike is surprised that it could "get any dirtier". In one episode, it has been suggested that Phoebe has had a threesome. In one episode where Rachel and Phoebe fight over a guy Phoebe says that she hasn't been on a date in very long. Rachel claims then that Phoebe had a date 3 days ago to which Phoebe replies, "That wasn’t a date! That was, that was just friends getting together... having sex." Another episode has Phoebe and Mike celebrating their anniversary, Rachel asks her "So which anniversary?, first date?, first kiss?, first time sleeping together?" to which Phoebe replies "Yeah". There are several hints that Phoebe is in fact bisexual. For example, Phoebe kisses Rachel in one episode to experience Rachel's claim to be a fantastic kisser. Phoebe says that if she had to select Monica or Rachel to have a lesbian relationship with, she would select Rachel because she is "not as high-maintenance" as Monica. An example of this occurs in the "The One With Ross And Monica's Cousin"; after Ross and Monica's gorgeous female cousin, Cassie, is shuffled from Monica's apartment to Ross', and finally to Phoebe's (because Chandler and Ross are uncontrollably attracted to her.) Phoebe experiences the same sexual desire for her that the men did. (In voiceover we hear Phoebe's thought: "Ask her out! She's not YOUR cousin!") Phoebe later claims that Monica "has the breasts of a Greek goddess". Phoebe often uses her chaotic childhood and traumatic past as sympathy ploys to her friends. References to her mother's death were usually to get her own way. Phoebe does not seem to mind that the other friends know she is only referring to her mother's death to try to get her own way. In one episode Rachel says, "Now, wait a minute, you can't use that to get the cute guy's phone and the last blueberry muffin!" to which Phoebe replies, "Did I use that already today? I'm sorry." However, as the series progressed, the other friends indulge her less frequently. Phoebe believes in reincarnation and refers to multiple gods; however, not all of Phoebe's beliefs seem internally connected. She is very open to the existence of paranormal phenomena and willing to consider the most bizarre scientific theories, much to Ross' confusion and despair. She, however, does not believe the theory of evolution or even that of gravity, claiming she feels more pushed down than pulled. At one point, Phoebe is even possessed by the spirit of an 82 year-old woman who had unfinished business. Phoebe also claims to hear voices in her head, and at one point, even heard what Joey was singing in his head. In "The One With All The Thanksgivings" Phoebe reveals that she believes she possessed the same look in at least two previous lives, and that Joey does not have any previous life memories because "he's brand new". Phoebe frequently uses the alter ego Regina Phalange. Once when she is pretending to be French, she even adopts a French version called "Régine Filange". The first reference to Regina Phalange is when she is trying to contact Ross in England, and pretends to be a Dr. Regina Phalange diagnosing a disease. The last reference is in the series finale when Phoebe successfully stalls Rachel's plane to Paris by saying there was a problem with the "Left Phalange." Her resistance against large corporations is made manifest in several episodes in which she speaks out against chain stores and the ideal of corporate greed, such as in "The One With The Apothecary Table" (against Pottery Barn, which she later admits liking). In season 9, most notably in the episode "The One With The Fertility Test", she tries to convince Rachel not to redeem a gift-certificate to a massage spa because it puts independent massage therapists such as herself out of business. However, when Rachel clandestinely visits the spa to redeem her gift certificate, it is revealed that Phoebe is employed at the spa as a massage therapist because of the good money, benefits, and 401(k) plan (she even exclaims that she has to "pay taxes!"). Phoebe is occasionally referred to as a heavy drinker, although she never demonstrates any dependence that would make her an alcoholic. In a season 7 episode, when describing her feelings for a man she's dating, she tells Monica "I feel like I've had ten drinks today...and I only had 6." She also drank over twenty drinks at a charity event stating "I think I've helped the kids so much I might vomit." At Monica's 30th birthday party, when Monica gets very drunk, Phoebe decides to "get twice as drunk so no one will notice Monica". The morning after Ross and Rachel get married in Las Vegas, Phoebe and the rest of the friends have a breakfast buffet. During the breakfast, she explains a few times that she is drunk, after drinking while having breakfast. Musical talent Phoebe's somewhat dubious musical skills were a popular source of entertainment. Her stunning array of songs include "The Double-Double-Double-Jointed Boy", "Bisexuals", "Sue, Sue, Suicide", "You Suck", "Shut Up and Go Home", "Pervert Parade", "Sticky Shoes", "Ode to a Pubic Hair (Little Black Curly Hair)", and most famously "Smelly Cat", which became both a jingle for a kitty litter television commercial (not sung by her) and a serious commercial release (also not her singing). Other popular tunes include "The Grandma Song" (a song about grandparent death) and "The Cow in the Meadow goes Moo" (a song about meat production and packaging) which she sang to the children in the public library program, earning her the name "The Lady Who Sings About the Truth". She also sang a song called "Happy Birthday, Emma" in Season 10, on the occasion of the birthday of Rachel and Ross's daughter Emma. Phoebe's musical influences and favorite bands are heterogeneous: she seems to know some tunes from Lionel Richie by heart, yet a taste for rock, heavy metal and hard rock can be clearly noticed. To name a few examples: *She attempts to meet Sting while pretending to be Susan, as Ben goes to school with Sting's son. She ends up with a restraining order. *In season 9, episode 03, she says she's "working on a couple Iron Maiden covers". *In season 7, episode 17, she expresses her love for the grindcore band Carcass. *In season 9, episode 13, she sings Queen's "We Are the Champions" at a piano bar. *In season 4, episode 1, Phoebe and her mother both say that they like The Beatles. At her wedding with Mike in season 10, episode 12, the song "Here, There and Everywhere" by The Beatles is played on steeldrums as she walks up the aisle. She describes her musical style as "acoustic folksy stuff" (season 9, episode 03). In the first seasons, she plays in open tuning, which requires only one finger to play major chords. In later seasons she plays in standard tuning. While attempting to teach Joey guitar, she professes to be "self-taught" and doesn't know the real names of chords. She refers to G-sharp as "Ice Berg" and A as "Bear Claw" because of her finger formations while playing them. Smelly Cat Smelly Cat first appeared in the second season episode "The One With The Baby On The Bus" where it was revealed to be Phoebe's most popular song. At the end of the episode she teaches a character played by guest star Chrissie Hynde to play the song. In "The One Where Eddie Moves In" Phoebe makes a professional recording of the song for possible commercial release, though her voice is replaced by an older singer. A short video for the song also appeared in this episode and is included in full as a bonus feature on the second season DVD set. In "The One With Phoebe's Ex-Partner" a character played by guest star Elizabeth Daily uses the song as a jingle for a cat litter commercial. In the fifth season episode "The One With Joey's Bag" Phoebe meets her estranged father, who reveals he sang a lullaby to her when she was a child, called "Sleepy Girl", which has the same melody as Smelly Cat. The "Smelly Cat Medley" track on the Friends Again soundtrack, credited to Phoebe Buffay & The Hairballs (featuring the Pretenders), features a recording of the scene, and then a new, more artistic recording of the duet between Hynde and Phoebe. Hynde then launches into a hard-rock version with new lyrics. The song became so famous that a group of Portuguese comedians had elected Gato Fedorento (Smelly Cat in Portuguese) for their show's name, claiming they were fans of Friends. Also when meeting Mike's parents, she sings it to them during dinner because nobody had spoken in seventeen minutes in "The One With Ross' Inappropriate Song". Animal rights and the environment Phoebe has many principles, though she sometimes fails to stick to them. She is a vegetarian, and doesn't eat "food with a face", however she succumbs to her cravings for meat during her pregnancy, though only after Joey agrees to abstain from meat so that no extra animals would need to be killed. She frequently uses her vegetarianism to apologize for some behaviors, especially the ones which makes animals suffer; for example, when she punches Joey, making him bleed, she seems to be reasonably surprised and says: "Wow, and I'm a vegetarian!" She is against the wearing of fur coats, though decides she looks good in one that she inherits although she later stops wearing it because she believes a squirrel is judging her. Once, she became very upset upon witnessing trees being cut down and sold as Christmas trees, and when witnessing a woman stubbing out a cigarette on a tree forced her to apologize to it. She also cries when flowers die (and even arranges funerals for them), and feels sorry about sitting on a line of ants and accidentally killing them. She even once named a rat living in her apartment - "Bob" and a mouse "Susie". When Bob had babies and was killed, she tried to raise the babies herself. Although she is a vegetarian, in "The One In Vegas", after remarking about being handed a coupon for a 99-cent steak and lobster dinner, Monica says, "Phoebe, you don't eat animals", to which Phoebe responds, "For 99 cents, I'd eat you." Also in "The One with The Blackout" she sings that she "stays away from dairy" which implies she is a vegan, or possibly lactose intolerant(although, she stated she once worked on Dairy Queen which is highly unlikely for a vegan). On a separate occasion, in "The One With The Dozen Lasagnas", Phoebe is seen in the background finishing off the Lasagnas with Monica - despite the fact that they weren't vegetarian Lasagnas. In "The One With Phoebe's Husband", Monica remarks that when Phoebe's first husband left, she became so upset that she ate a cheeseburger. Also, in "The One With All The Thanksgivings", Phoebe apparently ate turkey. Also in "The One With George Stephanopoulos" the girls are sharing secrets and Monica says "remember the vegetarian paté you loved so much . . . well if goose is a vegetable." In "The One With Ross's Inappropriate Song" she reluctantly eats veal when invited over to dinner at Mike's parents house, remarking "I am a vegetarian except for veal!" In 'The One With Rachel's dream', Phoebe accuses Monica's food to be of tiny amounts and pretentious and explains..." Yeah well, "excuse me, I ordered the smoked salmon appetizer, but I can’t see it, I can’t see it". So she did eat fish. Birthday Phoebe revealed that her birthday is February 16 in an early season, and in "The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner" she said that the restaurant could only have a table for them on Thursday and Joey replied saying that Thursday is Halloween, implying that Phoebe's birthday is around Halloween. Following each series Phoebe's ages are: 1: 26-27, 2: 27-28, 3: 28-29, 4: 29-30, 5: 30-31, 6: 31-32, 7: 32-33, 8: 33-34, 9: 34-35, 10: 35-36. Gallery 5x03 Phoebe and Triplets.jpg 5x03 Phoebe triplets.jpg 5x05 Phoebe Rachel.jpg 5x14 Chandler Phoebe awkward.jpg Friendsphoebedinner.jpg Friendsphoeberuns.jpg Friendsphoeberunsh.jpg Joey-Phoebe.jpg Phoebe-Buffay-Friends-tv-characters-5385946-768-576.jpg PhoebeandCat.jpg PhoebeTalkBubble.JPG PhoebeWedding.jpg Phoebe and David.jpg Phoebe and Gary.jpg Phoebe and Mike.jpg Phoebe Friends.png Phoebe funny.jpg Rogerphoebe.jpg Square Phoebe.jpg SuperGirlPhoebe.jpg The One With Phoebes Dad.jpg The One With Phoebes Husband.jpg TOWPhoebe'sBirthdayDinner.jpg Friends-season.jpeg Lick your lip.gif Trivia *When Phoebe became pregnant during Season 4, it was to account for Lisa Kudrow's actual pregnancy. Kudrow gave birth to a boy in Season 5. *Phoebe stated in the first episode that she lived with an albino guy when she first arrived in New York City when she was 14 after her mother killed herself and her stepfather was back in prison. *Phoebe's hair in "The One That Could Have Been" was Lisa Kudrow's real hair. Most of season six she wore a wig because her hair was thought to be too short for Phoebe's character. *In the show's original script, Lisa and Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) were secondary characters, but this was changed due to rewrites. *Phoebe is the only "Friend" who doesn't have a middle name. (Her sister Ursula's middle name is Pamela). *Phoebe is the only person in her family and her friends that knows the least about her family (it is shown in a few episodes that her twin sister Ursula has her birth certificate and their mother's suicide note that says their birth mother Phoebe Abbott lives in Montauk and her grandmother knows about the whereabouts of her father Frank Buffay) *In The One Where Rachel Goes Back to Work Phoebe claims she was friends with actor Richard Dreyfuss. *Phoebe is the only member of Friends to not date or marry cast member of friends. However she does kiss Ross, Chandler, Joey, and Rachel. *Phoebe and Ross are the only two friends to not only marry more than once, but also to marry outside the Friends group: Duncan and Mike for Phoebe and Carol, Emily and, assumingly after the series too, Rachel for Ross. *Phoebe may be telepathic, as she displayed the ability to read Joey's mind. *Phoebe stated that she went through a phase in junior high school where she thought she was a witch. *In "The One In Vegas, Part 2", she implies that she married in Vegas. *Phoebe is also the only left-handed friend out of the group, but plays the guitar with her right-hand. Lisa Kudrow is also left-handed. 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